Gimme Shelter to support the L.A. Animal Shelter

Joe Potter, Laura Parker and Magic of Trider’s Craft Brewery and Terri McCormick of the L.A. Animal Shelter show off Gimme Shelter, a session ale that’s being sold in support of the animal shelter on the Smith Road in Upper Nappan. - Darrell Cole

Trider’s Craft Brewery newest flavour raising money for shelter

AMHERST, N.S. – Laura Parker and Joe Potter are big fans of the L.A. Animal Shelter and the plight of rescued animals.

Their dog, Magic, is a rescue animal and the owners of Trider’s Craft Brewery want to do something to show their appreciation for the work being done by the shelter, located just outside Amherst on the Smith Road in Upper Nappan.

Gimme Shelter is a traditional east coast pale ale with a moderate hop aroma with citrus-grapefruit hop bitterness. More significantly, the bottles feature photos from Megan Cormier of four adoptable – if not somewhat adorable – pets available from the shelter.

All the proceeds from the sales of Gimme Shelter will be donated to the L.A. Animal Shelter.

“We have produced 600 bottles and we also have kegs and growlers,” Parker said. “People can come in and buy a pint or a growler and the proceeds will go to the animal shelter.”

Parker believes Gimme Shelter will go fast.

Potter said Trider’s staff are always encouraged to suggest flavours and recipe tweaks. They did some research and development on the flavour and found it very appealing. It also coincided with the request from the shelter.

“We’re always trying new things here and we think this flavour, even though it’s only for a limited time, will be very popular,” Potter said. “And it’s for a great cause, to help the animal shelter.”

Bottles are $6 each and are available at Trider’s store in the Amherst and Area Industrial Park and will also be available at the Truro Farmer’s Market and the Halifax Forum market. Kegs have also been sent to bars in Halifax where Trider’s is available.

And it’s already bringing in sales.

“We just posted it yesterday on social media and we already had people coming into the store requesting it,” Parker said. “Some wanted one of each label. Some people collect our bottles, so it was nice to get one of each bottle.”

Terri McCormick, who is a member of the animal shelter’s board of directors, said the shelter approached Trider’s to see if there was an angle that could be pursued to help the shelter raise money for its operation.

“We had seen what the Pumphouse Brewery in Moncton had done with Adoption Ale and wondered if it could work here,” McCormick said. “The money raised there went to support the SPCA and we were told it was very successful.”

McCormick feels it’s a win-win in that along with raising awareness for Trider’s, it will do the same for the animal shelter. She said there are still a lot of people in the community who know little about the animal shelter, the service it provides and the cost of operating it – not to mention the need to constantly raise money to meet expenses such as food and veterinary bills.

“We appreciate all the support we get from children bringing in their birthday money to initiatives such as this one with Trider’s. Every little bit helps us continue to be there for the animals,” McCormick said.

It costs approximately $150,000 annually to operate the shelter. It gets some funding from the Town of Amherst and the Municipality of Cumberland, but the majority of the budget is from fundraising within the community.

The folks behind Trider’s, who are always coming up with unique products and experimenting with different flavours and the beer comes with snappy titles such as the award-winning Brew-deau, Yellow Beer’d, Chaga-Lug, White Ogre, Mean Joe Bean, Honey Brown, Pumpkin Ale-ixer, Rod’s Red, Second Breakfast and Scotian Pale along with some seasonal flavours that coincide with the blueberry harvest (Blue Me Away) and maple season (Maccan Maple).